We would seem, indeed, to draw near to Jesus, if we had the happiness of only conversing with the Samaritan woman, or of eating at the table of Zaccheus, or of being entertained by Nicodemus. But if we were admitted into the inner circle of His friends—of Lazarus, Mary and Martha, for instance—the Baptist or the Apostles, we would be conscious that in their company we were drawing still nearer to Jesus and imbibing somewhat of that spirit which they must have largely received from their familiar relations with Him.
Now, if the land of Judea is looked upon as hallowed ground because Jesus dwelt there; if the Apostles were considered as models of holiness because they were the chosen companions and pupils of our Lord in His latter years, how peerless must have been the sanctity of Mary, who gave Him birth, whose breast was His pillow, who nursed and clothed Him in infancy, who guided His early steps, who accompanied Him in His exile to Egypt and back, who abode with Him from infancy to boyhood, from boyhood to manhood, who during all that time listened to the words of wisdom which fell from His lips, who was the first to embrace Him at His birth, and the last to receive His dying breath on Calvary. This sentiment is so natural to us that [pg 165] we find it bursting forth spontaneously from the lips of the woman of the Gospel, who, hearing the words of Jesus full of wisdom and sanctity, lifted up her voice and said to Him: “Blessed is the womb that bore Thee and the paps that gave Thee suck.”
It is in accordance with the economy of Divine Providence that, whenever God designs any person for some important work, He bestows on that person the graces and dispositions necessary for faithfully discharging it.
When Moses was called by heaven to be the leader of the Hebrew people he hesitated to assume the formidable office on the plea of “impediment and slowness of tongue.” But Jehovah reassured him by promising to qualify him for the sublime functions assigned to him: “I will be in thy mouth, and I will teach thee what thou shalt speak.”[212]
The Prophet Jeremiah was sanctified from his very birth because he was destined to be the herald of God's law to the children of Israel: “Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee.”[213]
“Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost,”[214] that she might be worthy to be the hostess of our Lord during the three months that Mary dwelt under her roof.
John the Baptist was “filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb.”[215] “He was a burning and a shining light”[216] because he was chosen to prepare the way of the Lord.
The Apostles received the plenitude of grace; they were endowed with the gift of tongue and [pg 166] other privileges[217] before they commenced the work of the ministry. Hence St. Paul says: “Our sufficiency is from God, who hath made us fit ministers of the New Testament.”[218]
Now of all who have participated in the ministry of the Redemption there is none who filled any position so exalted, so sacred, as is the incommunicable office of Mother of Jesus; and there is no one, consequently, that needed so high a degree of holiness as she did.
For, if God thus sanctified His Prophets and Apostles as being destined to be the bearers of the Word of life, how much more sanctified must Mary have been, who was to bear the Lord and “Author of life.”[219] If John was so holy because he was chosen as the pioneer to prepare the way of the Lord, how much more holy was she who ushered Him into the world. If holiness became John's mother, surely a greater holiness became the mother of John's Master. If God said to His Priests of old: “Be ye clean, you that carry the vessels of the Lord;”[220] nay, if the vessels themselves used in the divine service and churches are set apart by special consecration, we cannot conceive Mary to have been ever profaned by sin, who was the chosen vessel of election, even the Mother of God.